Republican Congressmen Worry That Trump Is Flushing Their Reelections Down The Toilet With His Own

Fred Upton wants to be seen as a moderate rather than the Trump enabler he is

Republican senators are afraid to do it because they worry Trump will notice and tweet something horrible about them, but some House Republicans are quietly trying to edge away from Trump to save their own skins. "Quietly" has been the key word there but Katie Edmondson and Rebecca Ruiz blew the whistle with a NY Times piece yesterday. They tried making the point that moderate Republicans-- whatever the hell that's supposed to be-- in competitive districts "are navigating a careful balance in addressing the coronavirus crisis," eager to not be associated with a president whose pandemic policies are widely recognized as the causes of death and destruction in our country. One congressman not mentioned in the piece was crooked Trump enabler Roger Williams in central Texas. "Congressman Williams is an extremist who is way out of step with the reality of what most Texans believe, as well as the everyday reality for people who have to work for a living," said Julie Oliver, the popular progressive Democrat who won her primary with 70% of the vote and is taking him on in November. "His response to the pandemic has been to funnel money to his own businesses while small business owners from Johnson county to Travis county get shut out of federal relief. He's fighting for the banks and predatory lenders, not mom and pop businesses in Texas. We deserve much better.

A great California progressive, Audrey Denney, is taking on far right northern California crackpot-- Doug LaMalfa, also unmentioned in the Times piece, unmentioned because he doesn't even pretend to be even remotely moderate. LaMalfa is a far right tea party backbencher in an R+11 district where he routinely assumes the safest approach is to mimic Trump. Yesterday, Audrey told us that LaMalfa's overt Trumpism, "calling our stay-at-home orders 'ridiculous measures' and arguing that our state leadership has 'taken it too far,' is not just bad advice and bad science. It’s an affront to the selfless and protective culture of our communities, who consistently band together to protect themselves and their neighbors during crises. There’s no question that the economic hardships of these stay-at-home orders are real and put people in potentially devastating economic circumstances, but protecting the lives of our loved ones and neighbors requires difficult choices. Rather than fighting the mitigation efforts because the symptoms are painful, we need to do what we do during a wildfire: follow the advice of public safety experts, focus our community energy on saving lives, identifying and protecting the most vulnerable, and working together to restore our nation to physical and economic health."

Edmondson and Ruiz mistakenly fell for Upton's carefully crafted bullshit about how "moderate" he is. He isn't. A much better description of Upton would point out that he's a Trump enabler and bootlicker who is uncomfortable being seen that way in a swing district. Edmondson and Ruiz think it's somehow courageous for his nightly Facebook update on the pandemic don't mention Trump. They're wrong. It would be courageous for Upton to mention Trump and explain how his public undercutting of Michigan's governor are making folks in MI-06 less safe, not more safe. They are, however, correct to point out that Trump's inadequate "response to the pandemic has raised questions that threaten to drag down Republicans’ electoral prospects this fall, or of the president’s provocative news briefings, which have become a forum for partisan attacks on Democrats and dubious claims about the virus."

Upton is a cleaver and deceitful opportunist. "You have to sort of thread the needle," he told Edmondson, explaining how he's desperately trying to navigate Trump’s psychotic performance during the crisis-- afraid if he mentions it Trump-Republicans will abandon him and afraid that if he goes along, independents and moderate Republicans will join forces to oust him for state Rep. Jon Hoadley in November. "I’ve been careful. I said, 'Let’s look to the future,' versus 'Why didn’t we do this a few months ago?’ I’m not interested in pointing the finger of blame. I want to correct the issues," Upton told her. Obama won the district in 2008-- with an 8 point margin, 53-45%. Hillary was a terrible candidate for this district and Trump beat her by the same 8 points. Two years later Upton was reelected but by outspending Democrat Matt Longjohn $3,553,344 to $1,443,958 and only by 4 points. Upton lost badly in the district's biggest county, Kalamazoo, and did poorly in Berrien and Van Buren counties, basically saved by the right-wingers in Allegan, St Joseph and Cass counties.

Upton has a far more formidable challenger this cycle in Hoadley. "We need bold leadership," he told me yesterday. "Representative Upton has failed time and again to hold the Trump administration accountable, and continues to do so. The fact is that people are dying as a result of this pandemic every day. Equivocating on life-saving measures, like making testing accessible, will only lead to more lives lost. We need to act fiercely to address this crisis, yet Mr. Upton continues to support the sentiments of the protesters in Lansing by calling for Governor Whitmer to ignore expert advice on the matter. I support the medical professionals who are working tirelessly to address this issue, and the guidance they are providing to overcome this pandemic. This isn't about political games-- this is about safeguarding the health of our communities. Representative Upton is simply not acting with the urgency and tenacity that the situation requires."

It is a tricky task for lawmakers like Mr. Upton in centrist districts throughout the country, who understand that their re-election prospects-- and any hope their party might have of taking back the House of Representatives-- could rise or fall based on how they address the pandemic. Already considered a politically endangered species before the novel coronavirus began ravaging the United States, these moderates [again Edmondson fell for Upton's spin; true, he isn't a Nazi but neither is he a moderate; he's a hard core, down the line conservative ideologue] are now working to counter the risk that their electoral fates could become tied to Mr. Trump’s response at a time when the independent voters whose support they need are increasingly unhappy with his performance.

The president’s combative news conferences, which his own political advisers have counseled him to curtail, have made the challenge all the steeper.

...And calling in to a radio show in Michigan, Mr. Upton hedged when asked if he agreed with the president’s optimism about reopening the economy. “As much as the president wants to open things up-- and we all do-- I think you’re going to have to let the virus really determine where things are at the end of the day,” he said. “We know that we are not there yet.”

And yet Upton has been too scared to speak out for Gov. Whitmer when she says exactly the same thing while being vilified by heavily armed right-wing terrorists grade don by Trump. That's what Fred Upton has become even if he was once maybe not quite as bad, decades ago.

And Upton isn't the only one. The other fake moderate-- this one is a blue (D+3) district-- they decided to profile was John Katko in Syracuse, New York. Obama won the district both times, in 2008 by 14 points and in 2012 by 16 points, Even a candidate entirely unsuited for a district like this-- Hillary-- managed to beat Trump, 48.9% to 45.3% in a hold-you-nose/lesser of two evils contest.

Last cycle, progressive Democrat Dana Balter was barely supported by the DCCC and was outspent by Katko $2,998,196 to $2,687,232. The NRCC put $885,085 into defending Katko while the vehemently anti-progressive DCCC grudgingly spent a measly $84,309 on Balter. She still managed to hold him to a 5 point margin and beat him in Onondaga County, the biggest county in the district. This cycle-- with much bigger name recognition-- she's challenging him again and pointing to his lockstep backing on the unpopular Trump.

“It does make it difficult at times,” Representative John Katko, Republican of New York, said in an interview. He said he hoped his constituents would evaluate him not based on Mr. Trump’s record, but on his own.

“I’m hanging on-- not hanging on, flourishing-- in a district I should probably not have as a Republican,” said Mr. Katko, one of only two House Republicans running for re-election in a district Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Voters “are going to judge me on what I did or did not do, and that’s all I can ask.”

In an attempt to ensure their contests become referendums on their own responses to the virus, rather than the president’s, vulnerable House Republicans are instead brandishing their own independent streaks, playing up their work with Democrats, doubling down on constituent service and hosting town-hall-style events-- avoiding mention of Mr. Trump whenever possible.

It is an approach that looks familiar to former Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, who tried to distance himself from Mr. Trump on immigration and other issues in 2018 as he fought to hang onto his seat in a diverse South Florida district, but was swept out in a midterm debacle that handed Democrats control of the House.

“The president continues to be reckless in the context of the Covid-19 crisis,” Mr. Curbelo said in an interview. “You could see a similar dynamic where a lot of Republicans in competitive districts will just break with him in an effort to protect their own candidacies.”

Many of his former colleagues in competitive districts had hoped the severity of the crisis would give them a platform to highlight their own responses, Mr. Curbelo said. But as Mr. Trump’s nightly briefings “became more about the president and his personality” than about the disease, he added, “Republicans have perceived a peril in that development, and certainly some of the recent polling validates that.”

Moderate Republicans [their aren't any and I would love to debate Edmondson on that] are doing what they can to shift the dynamic. In virtual town-hall-style meetings conducted by telephone from his central New York district, Mr. Katko has stressed the importance of bipartisanship, saying his constituents are “sick of the nastiness” in Washington.

Mr. Katko teamed up recently with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, for one such call, in which he broke with one of his own party’s leaders, rejecting a proposal by the top Senate Republican to allow states to go bankrupt rather than provide a federal lifeline.

“I’m going to continue to work across the aisle,” Mr. Katko told voters, pointing to his relationship with Ms. Gillibrand. “I totally disagree with what Mitch McConnell said-- that’s a great example.”

...“People are going to make a judgment here: Who do they want to give the responsibility of governing to, given what has just occurred?” said David Winston, a Republican pollster who works with the House Republican Conference. “Did you try to do the right thing? People want to know how their elected representatives are trying to solve this.”

...From his porch in St. Joseph, Mich., Mr. Upton unveiled a plan that aims to modernize the nation’s health care system to prepare for future pandemics. His nightly Facebook dispatches have drawn responses that offer a glimpse of the political balance he is struggling to strike.

“Not giving the President Trump administration any credit are you Fred,” Jerry Litke commented on a recent post that omitted any mention of Mr. Trump.

But Patricia Resetar had a complaint of her own about the same dispatch, demanding that Mr. Upton answer for the administration’s failure to deploy broad testing throughout the country.

“Where is all the testing?” she wrote. “Where is it, and why aren’t you holding this administration accountable?”

Mr. Upton said in an interview that he was “not afraid to give the president credit on a variety of issues” or to “be against him when I think he’s wrong.”

That would be never. Upton, like Katko, talks a good game but when push comes to shove, both are Trump bootlickers, pretending to be otherwise. Donald Bacon in Omaha doesn't even pretend to be moderate even though he's in a swing district that Obama won in 2008 and that Trump look by just 2 points in 2016. The progressive candidate running for the seat, Kara Eastman noted that where other Republicans are savvy enough to at least recognize the dilemma they're in, Bacon doesn't seem to even recognize Trump's failures in responding to the pandemic. "Bacon," she told me, "has doubled-down on his support for President Trump by echoing his policies and fully embracing even his most extreme ideas, while at the same time failing to support relief funding for the largest city in his own district."

Trumpist Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the eastern Washington incumbent, is going to have to face grassroots progressive Chris Armitage in November. As he said, "Cathy McMorris Rodgers votes with Trump 95% of the time; I don't even know married couples that agree that often. Cathy's greatest strength has always been her ability to quietly yet shamelessly act against the interest of American's while maintaining a low profile."

Mike Siegel, another central Texas progressive, read the Times piece and said that "It's too late for McCaul-- he’s hitched himself to Trump for better or worse. Backing the Family Separation policy when he was Homeland Security Chair; running interference on impeachment; leading the xenophobia playbook on COVID-19, and blaming the Chinese people instead of his President. Maybe McCaul wishes he could present a reasonable, independent image, but he’s already made his bed. This November, unless Trump has a surge in popularity in the moderate Houston suburbs, McCaul will be backing his bags, returning to his Austin mansion instead of Washington, DC. He will have no one but himself to blame."

McCaul can't even pretend he's anything BUT a Trump puppet